Gajogimnida

Maybe a good test of how strong a family is would be a week's vacation in which it rains every day. If it's still a good time, y'all are doing great❕ This family couldn't handle a lite misting. Dad is never home. He either drives a truck or hikes trails. The sisters don't speak to e/o & they treat Lil bro like an annoying waiter. They were able to ignore their problems until Mom announces she's separating from dad. Weirdly, she calls it "graduating from marriage." Secrets come out. Years of misunderstandings create new wounds. "The problems in our family are like forgotten boxes piled up in storage. The door was opened & the baggage started falling out all at once," we hear. Like Hee says, "This kind of story is all in the details."

Speaking of love & marriage, oldest sis Joo keeps separate rooms from her husband. Middle sis, Hee, broke up w/ her long-term bf - the hard way: After 9 yrs of dating him, his gf of 3 YEARS confronts her & calls HER a cheater😲!

What's off about Hee's look? They have her in the wrong colors for 90% of the show. One can't turn fall into spring & that's what they tried to do. For the run of the show, Hee's a bit of a mess. Always late. Takes her anger out on the wrong targets. Frequently immature & confused... She gets confused around her new boss. She's such a reader that she works in publishing, and the VP says her books are the BEST🎖. Apparently, he came to their office already a fan of hers. Hee was in a weakened state from her break-up & made the mistake of having a one night stand w/ new-boss.

Joo's husband is described as "sensitive". Their marriage seems lifeless and, after years of trying, Joo has given up on 🤰 🚼👶. Keeping everything under wraps, she's irritatingly "bad at being bad". She's an attorney, by vocation, & her personality reflects that there's little else she's qualified for (other than bureaucrat). She's so coldly logical & matter-of-fact. (Joo finally cracks a smile in ep15. I had given up hope). These sisters are nothing alike & frequently contentious. Yet they /are/ alike. They often say the same things to their parents (Joo always calls dad. Hee always calls mom). When the dander is up, they spout identical phrases.

Kim Ji Suk is Park Chan "Hyuk". He's genuine, affable & he is Hee's link to sanity. He accuses Hee of using him like a trash can, as she tells him things that she can't tell anyone else - just to get them off her chest. This trash can sorts: "So, forget about it now. But you must be worried: What if I run into him at work on Monday? Should I just quit over the weekend? Should I be cool & ignore him? No, what if he spreads gossip everywhere? (Exactly) What if he doesn't even remember it? (You're having fun, aren't you? ) Anyway, just forget about it. If it spreads, so what? Just be embarrassed. Time goes on. If something bigger happens it'll be forgotten soon." That's his advice (along w/ Hee's interjections) in the aftermath of the tryst w/ her boss. We see self-sabotage between Hee & Hyuk. They are attracted to e/o. Both try to kill it before it grows. Romance is a part of the show, but it is a family drama 1st.

The word 'family ' shares the same root as the word 'familiar.' We all know what familiarity breeds. "What is family?" That is how ep15 closes. It closes w/o an answer, just a "I still don't know." When Hee breaks up w/ her bf, she explodes at her sister (who wasn't sympathetic) & Hyuk (he knew but didn't tell her). She cut ties w/ them for years. Hee used them as trash cans for her rage. It's emotional cannibalism. In ep1 their relationships resume. In time, Hee will say this to Joo: "I came to see you every time something happened. And every time I did that, you never comforted me. I know that so well, so why do I always think of you? The words of comfort are sweet for a short moment, but your hurtful words, disgusting words & critical words make me react to them a few days later & give me strength to get back up."

The beginning of the show is getting to know the players, their perspectives & their assumptions, which taint everything they see & hear. We will then learn the truth of things. Then the healing can begin. It always starts w/ the parents. In the beginning of MUF, Dad goes missing & ends up contracting amnesia after a fall. It's a device that is too common, but in this case it is used effectively. Dad thinks he's 22 again. He's acting like he & mom are dating... He's super into her, to mom's unease. He's completely forgotten the long yrs of small insults & petty denials that cooled their love into a slow separation. Dad is young & in love again. Mom is beside herself.

In his many "counseling" sessions w/ Hee, Hyuk is the one that tells us what the writer is trying to communicate. "A scientist said that we know more about the materials in the solar system than the materials inside the earth. We think that there's no need to learn about Earth since we live on it. That's how families are." "Family members know the weak point that others can't see so well. They can always strike a hard blow whenever they want."

Secrets. Going solo. Miscommunication. Wrong assumptions. Horribly wrong assumptions. Slowly, characters begin to realize: "I don't know my family." They don't know themselves, either. "I didn't know I was this petty." "You aren't petty & crooked, you're only like that to your sister," Hyuk expounds. "I'm sure you want me to be brave & honest, & not do things... slowly... If a human being lives his or her life in such a just & honest way all the time, the heart can't handle it & explodes. So you need to make excuses from time to time. Use tricks when you can't help it. & realize that you're cowardly & repent. This is the way to make your heart handle things."

Anger & family. Family & bitterness. Treating family w/ the contempt of impossible standards & using them as targets in which we misdirect our anger - these are the themes. I've taken to calling this social & emotional cannibalism. We keep our eyes lateral & lash out at other's expense. We should keep our eyes focused upward on the highest standards. Anger turns into unforgiveness which hardens into bitterness. It is, as the adage goes, like drinking poison & expecting someone else to get sick - it only hurts us. The best time to forgive is right away, before it hardens into such a huge obstacle that it's nearly impossible to move forward. Forgiveness is releasing ourselves from a burden. It is letting go of the anger & sourness that consumes us & steals our joie de vie, our joy of life. I call it leveling-up. Instead of looking at relationships horizontally, endlessly comparing ourselves & feeling superior or inferior, level-up into a higher form of life. Our anger often stems from our pride being dinged. To level-up, a person needs to let go of pride.

Now, back to problem parents: "Adults can be silly & immature, sometimes." Mom & dad had become 2 strangers under one roof over the years. Dad held on to mom's ex more than she did! His jealousy (born from pride) corrupted the marriage. Joo has a different father, though none of the kids know that. It comes out that Dad had many temper tantrums over the years b/c he felt inadequate. We'll learn this began when he overheard people gossiping at the wedding. Gossip is a horrible habit. Think about why a person does that. Why does a person get pleasure from it? The basis of gossip is pride. We love to feel better than other people by comparison & thus we enjoy other people's misery. Here, it ended up tearing a family apart for years. Nobody wants to be guilty of causing that.

"There was a time when there was only the two of us in the world, & we were everything to e/o," Mom dolefully recalls. M&D allowed little hurts to fester unresolved. It led to more misunderstandings & then, Mom admits, she deliberately didn't clear some things up out of spite. In the latter half of the show Mom & Dad deconstruct their marriage & what went wrong. All their angst was over a whole lot of nothing. Plenty of divorces happen that way. Some divorces are for the best, but many aren't. Soon, it's: "Mom is having a fling." Even though Mom & Dad have separated, they have to keep meeting up over this situation or that drama. They end up unwittingly dating. "I saw young people drinking this & I wanted to try it too", Dad says, as he hands her a drink. Dad's actually arranged to meet her at popular dating sites he's found online. 'I don't know why everybody here is young..." It gets very cute. Even cuter is how Ji-woo, who still lives at home, figures out that his mother must be dating someone. There's flowers & vases, & tags for new clothing. Mom's out alot.

"I thought my family was normal, but we're not." Idk what normal is. Much of human behavior follows patterns, but "normal" seems to be 85% phoniness. Finding the right mix of individualism & compromising enough to fit in (don't lie, steal, cheat, do wash regularly, groom, & wear clean clothes) is an art. People who level up won't squash their personality down to nothing to fit in w/ or attempt to impress others. That's enslavement. The crowd is so rarely in the right it is truly a false flare. Free yourself. Be warned, they might hate you for your freedom.

The show is amusing in its apt portrayal of diverse personalities trying to keep their familial relationships afloat. "Nevermind. Let's just try to understand this separately. Things will get worse if we try to convince e/o. I have no energy." 😅 I like the way the writer put that. I intend to steal it immediately. In all, this is excellently acted & written. It's insightful & well worth at least 1 watch.

QUOTES📢

These things happen.

Bad hunches always come true.

〰🖍 IMHO

📣8.2 📝8.5 🎭8.5 💓5 🦋4.5 🎨6.5 🎵/🔊7 🔚8.2 ▪ 🌞4.5 ⚡2.5 😅3.5 😭3 😱2 😯2 🤢2 🤔6 💤0

Age 15+ It's mostly tame but there's one night stands & unexpected pregnancy issue.

Fun, sad, happy, family kdrama. One of my top 10 i believe. It was quite a wonderful surprise.

This show is very slow paced but every moment is important. This is a family who cannot under any circumstances communicate. Seriously they all are the worst and jump to conclusions about absolutely everything all the time.

Somehow that's what makes this work. The only thing that completely destroyed it was the ice Queen older sister. Kudos to her for keeping completely expressionless 100% of the time, but honestly cracking a smile just once might have been nice. Laughing might have been better. She deserves the crap life she got being such a horrible, entitled cow with absolute disregard for everyone else 100% of the time.

Worth a watch, but it's slow. A bit predictable at times (but not in others) and has a good laugh with the second crazy sister. Who steals the whole show.

Excellent series that addresses family secrets that are gradually being revealed in the relationship between parents and children. Suffering, tragedy, past and present weaving the story of a family, their hurts, resentments, and the possibility of maturation and new bonds.

Very realistic feel .. loved every moment of it it's actually 16 episodes though.